BACKWARD GLANCES - Teachers crash car on way home from basketball game

Thursday

Mar 8, 2012 at 12:01 AMMar 8, 2012 at 7:16 AM

See what was happening in Redwood Falls 50, 25, and 10 years ago this week.

Joshua Dixon, Staff Writer

1962—50 years ago
• Eight Redwood Falls High School teachers or administrators — George Ramseth, Reede Gray, Otto Siewert, Robert Thompson, Clem Stramel, Paul Duckstad, Orville Peterson, and Phil Hall — were driving home from the District 10 basketball tournament when their school station wagon struck another vehicle and overturned in a ditch between Gaylord and Winthrop.
Of the occupants, Siewert was the only injured party, suffering a fractured left forearm.
• Mrs. George Beecher, a member of the first Redwood Falls Girl Scout troop, was on hand to help celebrate the 50th annual Girl Scout father-daughter banquet, held in the RFHS cafeteria with over 250 attendees.
• In a study that found a high correlation between education and family income in Minnesota, Redwood Falls was a bit of an outlier.
Of cities in the 2,500 to 10,000 population range, Redwood ranked 15th in education, and 55th in family income.
• The Redwood Falls High School Class of 1912 reunion committee met at the Clarence Hillig home.
• In his weekly column, Gazette sports editor John Schneider said he didn’t care who won the district basketball championship, as long as it stayed in Redwood County, “where it belongs.”
He was willing to make an exception for Fairfax.
1987—25 years ago
• A committee suggested cuts in school spending totalling over $166,666, with the largest cut single coming from not replacing the retiring agricultural business teacher.
• The Peacepipe Girl Scout Council was looking for women involved in the early days of local scouting as part of the troop’s 75th anniversary.
• Redwood County’s first five Reinvest in Minnesota contracts were signed, taking about 170 acres of farmland out of production to be seeded with prairie grasses.
• The airport’s hangers were falling apart, and the city looked into replacing them with newer “T-hangers.”
• With enrollments declining, area superintendents tentatively discussed the possibility of a “Redwood County High School” to be based in the Clements area.
2002—10 years ago
• A study showed that about 2.5 of Redwood Falls’ population, about 175 people, had developmental disabilities.
• To raise funds, the Ehlers Intergenerational Center sponsored a contest in which people got to vote with their pocket change for who they’d most like to see kiss a pig. The candidates included Deb Hess, Daryl Thul, Rick Ellingworth, or Heinz Janning.
• The Cardinals boys basketball team won a 65-62 victory over Worthington to claim the sub-section title.
• Three dozen runners and walkers took turns carrying the Eagle Staff from the Lower Sioux Pow-wow grounds to the Buffalo Horse Camp site five miles north of Morton to kick off a pow-wow.
• Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer spoke to the Rotary Club about how the state redistricting process might affect the town.